Terrorism: Product Of The System?

A very perverted combination of political correctness and expediency is causing the leaders of the current Indian administration to raise the bogey of Hindu Terrorism. It seems that Swami Aseemanand has confessed to being the mastermind of the Samjhauta Express blast. Long time ago, we had handed over a guy who had stolen some money form our hostel. We saw what the policemen did to him. Half an hour more and the guy would have confessed to the JFK assassination. But I digress.
Mr. Swapan Dasgupta says that they are using Hindu terror to grab headlines. I think they are using the Hindu Terror to change the headlines from 2G and innumerable other scams and problems. Anyone can see that the Manmohan Singh government is in a hole that they cannot dig themselves out of! So comes the knight in shining armor, Digvijay with his claims for Hindu terrorism armed with unsubstantiated phone records.

In words of Mr. Dasgupta - The US investigators have claimed, based on inputs from sources in Pakistan, that it was a Lashkar-e-Tayyeba squad under Arif Usmani that had carried out the blasts. This was an important basis for the UN Security Council decision to brand the LeT a terrorist organisation, a decision that has international ramifications. Does Aseemanda's testimony overturn these conclusions?

So obviously someone is lying. I will leave it up to you to decide who benefits from these lies because that is the liar.
Of course, this does not absolve all the Hindus of criminal activities. Nathuram Godse did assassinate Gandhi. But despite of their best effort, the Congress led government could not pin the blame on the RSS. Nathuram was a lone wolf. Like the assassins of Indira Gandhi or RFK or attacker on Ronald Regan, Godse was a product of his own ideology. He DID not mirror the society.
This point has been brilliantly raised by one of my favorite writers, Ayaz Amir. A Pakistani, Mr. Amir does not like India. He, however, is bestowed with a unique vision of his own country. He writes a piece every Friday. Last week, in the aftermath of the Salman Taseer assassination, he wrote: Any lone ranger can kill Martin Luther King or Robert F Kennedy. It was a Hindu bigot, guided by the highest of motives (according to his way of looking at the world), who shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi. Pakistan’s tragedy is that its holy zealots are not lone rangers but products, and now the instruments, of a mindset 30 years in the making: from Gen Ziaul Haq’s era and the time of the first Afghan ‘jihad’ down to the present, a mindset totally at odds with what gullible fools like us take the idea of Pakistan, as first mooted in 1947, to be.
Please read his article so you can see that I am not taking this out of context. You will also see that he is not exaggerating either. The assassin, Mumtaz Qadri has a fan following on facebook (i.e. people with access to Internet who can log in and read in English rather than illiterate Jihadis).
As much as the current Indian government would have you believe that Hindus are as capable as Pakistanis and their brethren of carrying out terrorist activities, they are wrong. Hindu society is not conducive to extremist thinking. In fact most people are of the self-flagellating kind, who would blame themselves for all the evil in the world. More than Catholics, we are prone to turning the other cheek. Our capability to absorb punishment is second to none. How else could we have up with one incapable government after another! No Sir!! If there are any lone wolf Hindu extremists, they are not product of the system. They are a result the reaction to the votebank and appeasement politics of our pseudo secular establishment.
I really hope that the politicians do not continue on this dangerous path of accusing Hindus for their own benefits.

The Dasgupta article can be read at: http://dailypioneer.com/309363/Using-‘Hindu-terror-to-grab-headlines.html
The Ayaz Amir article can be read at: http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=24369&Cat=9&dt=1/7/2011

The picture is from: http://politics.gaeatimes.com/2010/08/26/home-minister-p-chidambaram-warns-about-saffron-terror-74908/

Why true Muslims do not allow “blasphemy” of Islam?

Looking at the bad press Islam receives on it's adherents reactions to “offenses” the kind of which other religions take in their stride, one would think that by now hard-line Muslims might learn to check their natural impulse to indulge in violence on provocations and blasphemies against Islam. Yet, the Muslims do not react to such things – a cartoon here, a remark there, a book depicting Mohammed in unflattering light, with dignified silence. They still, after all the odium from the world public, react to apparently minor provocations with extreme outpourings and violence.

Why?

One might argue it is only contempt for the opinion of other religions' adherents and a certainty about their own. But still, when it makes so much tactical sense to check violent reaction in such cases, why the Muslims still act true to form on perceiving slights to their religions.
Those who have not studied Islam have one of the two reactions. The ones sympathetic to Islam show exasperation and make yet another desperate effort to segregate “extremists” from “mainstream” Muslims and valiantly try to draw parallels between extremists of all religions. It is another matter that they are increasingly devoid of conviction in such efforts and perhaps don't take even themselves seriously any more in defense of Islam. Those who are antagonistic to Islam point out to another proof of inherently violent nature of Islam. Neither of these views, however, answers the question why Muslims are not able to learn making tactically more sensible responses to attacks on their religion.

Once someone has studied Islam, however, and has put himself in the shoes of common Muslim, the answer appears clear.

Muslims are mortally afraid that perfect freedom to express opinion of Islam and depict all it's prophet's deeds will be so embarrassing for them that they will have a tough time explaining why they are at all continuing to be adherents of Islam. To elucidate, I give below my e-mail to a truly moderate and sensible Pakistani, in response to a column of his on why Muslims could not ignore offenses such as Koran burning in the USA:

Hi xxxxx,

I had much to say on this column of yours, but I will only try to tell u why they can't "hit delete and move on". [Note: This was the heading of his column – Why can't they hit delete and move on]

Those who indulge in violence at the announcement of Koran burning (even without the actual event taking place) know that once such actions are ignored (as you advise), it will be followed by more such actions. There will be, for instance, cartoons depicting Mohammed torturing Kinana and taking his wife for himself, or maybe episodes on History Channel showing the massacre of Bani Quraiza in all it's gory details.

They know that if they don't try to suppress such actions with their collective might, who knows, some uncouth infidel might one day make a movie on Mohammed, showing Mohammed's face too, maybe played by an arch villain of Hollywood or Bollywood, and the movie shows all the incidents of his life that Muslims would hate non- Muslims to know. They know that if such things were to happen, more and more infidels will question if Islam is a religion like all others, or it is a brutal and totalitarian political ideology.

People will question prophethood of Mohammed. They will ask why such a man should be considered at par with Jesus and Moses. They know that more and more Muslims might start asking that question. They know it might lead to apostasy on a large scale. They know that most probably, the apostates will look more developed mentally, more free, modern and liberal than Muslims. That will further reinforce the idea that something is fundamentally wrong with Islam.

They fear that if taken to its logical conclusion, ignoring such events will lead to abolition of Islam!!

That is why the desperate desire to suppress all such actions NOW. To prevent the infidels from saying and doing anything that truly free people might want to say or do about Islam!!

That is why they cannot "delete and move on"

I have to say this, with due respect, that they are the ones who really understand Islam. Sorry, but I had to say this bluntly once I read your column.

I am sure you know though, that I respect you as a person.
Cordially
Sanjay

I am tempted to produce my entire exchanges with him in the course of which, he tried to draw equivalence of Islam and other religions and actually attempted to pass off falsehood in support of his hypothesis. However, it is not easy to lie in this age of Internet and I confronted him with the lie. At that point, he simply made an embarrassing face saving statement saying that I have encouraged him to study more and then he pushed off!

But coming back to the original point - why so much support for killing of Pakistani minister for supporting change in blasphemy law? Why the extreme reaction to Mohammed's cartoons, why the violence against Taslima Nasreen? Why the threat of widespread violence against Koran burning?

I have attempted to answer that question after studying the Muslim mind. Muslims cannot afford freedom of speech. Nor, for that matter, or religion. And once these premises are accepted in a Muslim society – that there will be neither freedom of speech nor of religion, the supremacist discriminatory laws against non – Muslims is a logical step. Indeed, this is the root cause why Muslims cannot live with non – Muslims as equals on permanent basis. Islam cannot stand modern day paradigm of equality of religions and freedom of speech.

The picture is from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/05/2082367.htm

Failed Congress

In the last so many years that Congress led government has been at the helm, the only thing that has grown is the economy. No mean achievement that. Except, now most of the tools and rules are in place and even a telephone pole in the PM’s chair cannot stop that kind of economic growth. Short of any major reversal in policy, the infrastructure alone can take care of the economics. But since most of the development is passing the real aam aadmi, what has Congress done to alleviate that? Precious nothing.

They have failed to keep us safe. We have been attacked on all fronts and all we do is to make tough statements. Even those have become milder lest we upset the votebank.

They have failed on the corruption front miserably. With scams after scams tumbling out of the closet, one is forced to admire people like Laloo Yadav who only stole in 100’s of crores.

With sole focus on UNSC seat, the foreign policy is also a disaster. The Chinese are in the PoK and essentially redrawing the map and all this government has done is to make Indo-China trade more lop-sided the wrong way. The aam aadmi can only pray that there are people out there who can donate their spines donors to help our leaders out.

With our poorer children eating clay to feed themselves up while grains either rot or are stolen by the babu-politician-businessman nexus, the Congress has failed on that front as well.
Is there any doubt in the aam aadmi’s mind that Congress has miserable failed on all fronts? In fact, this as comprehensive as failures get. If India were not such an established democracy with her god-loving citizens, we would have plunged into a banana republic like unrest.
As the song goes – “baaki joh kuch bachaa toh mehn-gayee maar gayee!! Our esteemed, honorable and most qualified economist Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been helpless in curtailing the spiraling food inflation. Per last year’s UN report India had 410 million below the poverty line. It said India added 100 million more poor below the UN estimated poverty line of $1.25 a day, a 10% poverty rate increase from 27.5% to 37.2% since 2004. That’s during the corruption and scam ridden Congress’ rule. With agriculture ministry headed by minister who declined to distribute the rotting food grain and pulses free to the poor, it’s anybody’s guess as to who Sharad Pawar cares more about; the cartel and not the poor. The Competition Commission of India fearing a scam in the way onion prices has spiked has ordered a probe into a possible cartelization by the onion traders.

What will the aam aadmi eat if even the staple food such as onions becomes unaffordable? Now the poor in India are even robbed of the raw onion that he could eat with his sookha roti when the dal became expensive. Cannot believe as to how the population is servicing in a country where majority of the population is estimated to spend more than 50 percent of their household income on food.
Following are the yearly rise in prices of some essential commodities that form the sub-index for food articles:
Onions: 82.47 percent
Vegetables: 58.85 percent
Fruits: 19.99 percent
Milk: 19.59 percent
Eggs, meat, fish: 20.83 percent

An aam aadmi/common man interviewed by a TV channel said “It becomes really difficult and impossible to sustain and live after the 10th of every month”.

Food prices were sky high even during the UPA-1. Even then people voted for Congress. Since in democracy, we deserve the government we elect, the only people who can complain now are the BJP voters. Everyone else needs to stand up and accept the blame. Those voters may not all have voted for Congress. However, they may have voted for regional parties who have no ideological standing and ended up enabling the Congress. Those parties must be ignored. Voters need to look at their own self interest and then vote. The party who can feed them and keep them safe.
In one of our earlier posts, we mentioned an interview with a Kolkata based Muslim “sabjiwallah”. He lamented that at least during BJP rule, he did not have to worry about food prices. No BJP supporter, he!!
With leaders like Bhai Narendra Modi and others, the choice for Indian voters could not be starker.

Food gets out of aam admi’s reach
It is not onion alone which is bringing tears into the eyes of buyers. While an increase of over 82 per cent in onion prices and 58.85 per cent in vegetables led to the overall increase in food inflation, prices of egg, meat and fish were up by 20.83 per cent, fruits by 19.99 per cent and milk by 19.59 per cent).
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said though it was a weekly figure, the Government was concerned. “These are weekly (figures). Let us wait for the monthly figures. These are weekly variations, but it is a matter of concern,” he said.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/308929/Food-gets-out-of-aam-admi’s-reach.html

Steep rise in Indian food costs sparks fears of global effects
India's Commerce and Industry Ministry said Thursday that food prices rose at an annual rate of 18.32 percent in the week ending Dec. 25. That capped more than a year of double-digit food price inflation for India, where millions of people still spend more than 50 percent of their household income on food.
The latest sharp rise in Indian food-price inflation was partly due to the jump in the price of onions, a staple ingredient in India's curries.
Ali Mohammad, a 30-year-old onion trader in Mumbai, said: "People have to buy the same number of onions. It's a staple. That is why I haven't seen any change in sales. But what I have seen is that rather than buying 1 kilogram at a time, as before, they will buy less, but more often, so it is manageable."
Naresh Vitlani, a 54-year-old clothes trader, said: "It seems everything is going up in price, from vegetables and meat to diesel and household cooking gas. We are always worried as to what is next." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010603757.html

Can't implement Supreme Court order on foodgrain: Sharad Pawar
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has responded to Supreme Court's recommendations of distributing grains to the poor for free instead of letting them rot.
"It's not possible to implement the Supreme Court's order," the minister said.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/can-t-implement-supreme-court-order-on-foodgrain-sharad-pawar-45588?cp&cp

Bangladesh: The Forgotten Genocide

When people talk of modern day genocides, we get hear the Holocaust, Armenian genocide, Hutu's and Tutsi etc. But no one talks about what happened in Bangladesh back in1971. Anthony Mascarenhas (1986)in Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood. (Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-39420-X.)claims that 1-3 million civilians were killed by the Pakistani army. The Pakistani generals like Yahya and Tikka Khan ensured murders of the educated elites and Hindus so as to leave Bangladesh totally dependent on them. Now even if the genocide figures were on the lower end on the 1-3 million, it is probably the highest kill rate of all modern day genocides. These guys could have given a lesson or two to the Nazis in killing (who until then were the worst in the history of mankind).

The author of the attached article was there in Bangladesh at that time and saw all that first hand. He seems to have dissented as much as he could without risking a court martial. He describes how they were ordered to kill all the Hindus. The picture in the article which is posted here speaks volumes. He describes a very chilling incident in his words:

I ordered my subordinates to put the weapons away and ordered a tea-break. We remained there for hours. Somebody brought and hoisted a Pakistani flag. Yesterday I saw all Awami League flags over your village. I told the villagers. That was indeed the fact. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Later the main army column caught up to make contact. They arrived firing with machine guns all around and I saw smoke columns rising in villages behind them. What is the score? the Colonel asked.
There was no resistance so we didn’t kill anyone, he was informed.
He fired from his machine gun and some of the villagers who had brought us water, fell dead. That is the way my boy, the Colonel told this poor Major.

So what happened to the culprits of the genocide? The US needed the Pakistanis to make friends with the Chinese. Therefore they and the other western countries kept quiet (thus they all were culpable in the genocide). The Generals went on to live out the rest of their days in peace. The younger officers went on to progress and grow to become mirror images of their predecessors. Pervez Mushharraf who was a Company Commander in 1971, brutally put down a Shia uprising in Baltistan area as a Brigadier a decade later. We know what he did in Kargil. General Ashfaq Kiyani was active during the 1971 war and today he is in charge of a nuclear arsenal.

Knowing what we know about the 1971 genocide, how can we trust people who were involved with that? Those people are now the decision makers in Pakistan. How can we expect them to side with reason and human rights and anything that democracies stand for?

A khaki dissident on 1971by Colonel Nadir Ali“It is Mujib’s home district. Kill as many bastards as you can and make sure there is no Hindu left alive,” I was ordered. I frequently met Mr Fazlul Qadir Chaudhry, Maulana Farid Ahmed and many other Muslim League and Jamaat leaders. In the Army, you wear no separate uniform. We all share the guilt. We may not have killed. But we connived and were part of the same forceThe article can be read at: http://www.viewpointonline.net/a-khaki-dissident-on-1971.html

Monsters and Their Masters!

History has shown that no one has been able to control the monsters they create. Mary Shelley wrote a novel – Frankenstein, which was precisely about this topic. Yet arrogant men have continued to create monsters thinking they can do better than their predecessors and have paid a price. Closer to home, we have examples of Indira Gandhi who created Bhindranwale. Americans created the Jihadis (one of whom was Osama bin Laden) to defeat the Russians. Pakistanis must have thought that they were so smart in utilising the Taliban to control Afghanistan and Jihadis to bleed India. We know the result of those creations. In all the above cases it was need and arrogance which led these monster creators towards the precipice. Of course in case of the Pakistanis, another factor played an important role. It is the hatred for Hindus. That hatred seems to have blinded the Pakistanis to even the most obvious perils.
Now when the Jihadi monster has taken a life of it’s own, the moderate Muslims in Pakistan are in shock. Why the shock? What were they really expecting? Were they expecting that the Jihadi dog is going to cross the border, bite the Hindus and come back to his master? When they were killing Hindus, no one from the moderate Muslim group made any noise about it. Now the monster has turned on their master and these people are outraged. To hell with them!
Nothing about the extremists surprises me but the behaviour of the moderate and the educated class in Pakistan, small as it may be, is more surprising.

Taseer murder shows infiltration of Pakistan's armed forces
B Raman.
The assassination of Salman Taseer, the liberal Governor of Punjab, by one of his police security guards at an Islamabad shopping centre on January 4 because of the Governor's criticism of the blasphemy law draws attention once again to the penetration of the Pakistani security forces by Islamic extremist elements.
The article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/taseer-murder-shows-infiltration-of-pakistans-armed-forces/20110105.htm

The Abuse Of Ganga Ma!

Ganga River Dolphin!!

The Dead Sea is called that because there is no marine life in it. Not even bacteria. Why? Because of excessive salt in the sea which happened because of evaporation and no continuous source of water. That is nature for you. What is our responsibility towards our natural treasures? Do we have greater responsibility towards our holy rivers? The answer to that is important but not relevant to this post.

River Ganga or Ganga Ma as the "shraddhalu" would refer to her is the lifeline for the most fertile plains of our country. The river sustains life in the country. That is why we call her "Ma". Then why does she get treated with such disdain?

It is natural for cities and economic centers to crop up along the rivers. That has been happening since time immemorial. It makes perfect sense. A never ending source of water and a mode of transportation! You take it to next level and you have larger cities with more demand on the river. You have industries which need water and create extremely toxic waste. From the cruelly greedy industrialist point of view, a river is both a source of water and a way to get rid of waste. That is what is happening along the holy river. Tanneries are the biggest source of toxic waste. They heavily use of chromium which is an extremely toxic metal. In Chemistry labs, that waste is disposed off like you would radioactive material. You do not touch it, or smell it, or spill it. On the other hand, the tanneries are just throwing it in the river. What do you think it is doing to the marine life? The water of the Holy River has extremely high mercury content which is another toxic metal. And it not just drinking and bathing in the river we are talking about. Even agriculture is going to be become impossible.

The author of the attached article says: As per the UECPCB (Uttarakhand Environment Conservation and Pollution Control Board) study, while the level of coliform present in water should be below 50 for drinking purposes, less than 500 for bathing and below 5,000 for agricultural use -- the present level of coliform in Ganga at Haridwar has reached 5,500. In Varanasi, India's most sacred city, the coliform bacterial count is at least 3,000 times higher than the standard established as safe by the World Health Organisation. Coliform are rod-shaped bacteria that are normally found in the colons of humans and animals and become a serious contaminant when found in the food or water supply.

Imagine that! That level of pollution exists in Haridwar which is almost at the beginning of the river. What do you think the level of Coliform is near Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi? Come to think of it, it may even be lower because the chemicals from the tanneries may have killed the harmful bacteria!! It would be funny if we were not talking about many millions of lives depending on this helpless river.

As it turns out that money is not the reason behind the lack of action. The author says: In spite of several announcements and promises by different governments, the Ganga still remains polluted. The World Bank has stepped forward with an offer of $1 billion (about Rs 4,500 crore) to help save the Ganga. Funds are sufficient but it is lack of political will and bureaucratic apathy that stands in the way.

So there we have it. Netas and babus again standing in the way of something positive. But that is no revelation to any of us. The CM of the state of UP is too busy with parks and statues and honoring dalits leaders. She has no time for the downtrodden in the state who have elected her let alone the Holy River. The central government is too busy trying to save their skin and keep the seat warm for the Prince. Aam Aadmi is too wrapped up in trying to keep his brood fed. Does anyone have any time for our natural treasures especially the ones who sustain us? I guess Bholenath will have to unleash Ganga Ma from his "jataa" so she can flow down freely and cleanse her self. It is painfully obvious that we can't do it.

The Ganga is still waiting for its purification
The time to clean up the Ganga is now and the livehood and future of millions of people depend on it, says geologist Dr Nitish Priyadarshi.
There has been a steady deterioration in the quality of water of Indian rivers over several decades. India's 14 major, 55 minor and several hundred small rivers receive millions of litres of sewage, industrial and agricultural wastes. Most of these rivers have been rendered to the level of sewage flowing drains. There are serious water quality problems in the cities, towns and villages using these waters. Water borne diseases are rampant, fisheries are on decline, and even cattle are not spared from the onslaught of pollution.

The article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-ganga-is-still-waiting-for-its-purification/20110105.htm
The picture is from: http://www.animalpicturesarchive.com/view.php?tid=3&did=22049

Indian Politicians & Swiss Banks

On the heels of the revival of the Bofors scam comes an excellent piece by Prof. Vaidyanathan. On his part, he has revived the issue of retrieval of the Indian black money stashed abroad. In one of our posts, we had mentioned the report by the Global Financial Integrity which shows astounding amount of money going out of India. The good Professor raises and answers the important question as to why there is no political will to pursue the recovery of this money. As Tiger Joginder Singh said in regards to the Bofors scam that if the patient and the doctor are the same person what can one expect as far as results are concerned, I would like to paraphrase it and say that if the thief and the cop are the same people, how can we expect any honest in dealing with such crimes.

The Gandhi family gets implicated again and again and yet we keep electing them. As per Prof. Albert Einstein who famously defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Why do we place so much faith in the dynastic rule? Are we expecting that somehow the spirits of Subhash Chandra Bose and Vallabh Bhai Patel and other Congressmen of that caliber are going to enter the the bodies of Digvijay Singh and Rahul Gandhi and instill the intellect, statesmanship, passion and the patriotism that has not been seen since?

It is pointless to expect this group of politicians to do the right thing. All they are doing is making their immediate and extended families rich while the Indian voter / aam aadmi is struggling to buy daal and onions and other such essentials. The aam aadmi needs to send the same message as the Bihar voters sent - perform honestly or get the hell out!

Why is government reluctant to retrieve funds stashed abroad?
R Vaidyanathan, January 3, 2011 22:54 IST

One possible reason could be the culpability of our leaders. There was a report in the Swiss journal Schweitzer Illustrierte, which did an expose on politicians of the third world and developing nations who had stashed their wealth in Swiss banks. In its issue dated November 11, 1991, the magazine, citing the newly opened KGB records, reported ‘that Sonia Gandhi, the widow of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was controlling secret account with 2.5 billion Swiss Francs (equal to $2.2 billion) in her minor son’s name’. Interestingly there has not been any defamation suit against the magazine nor any denial of that report, either by the government or by the oldest political party.

The prime minister has announced to “redouble efforts” to “cleanse the system” in 2011. For a start, can he inform the nation about the total number of foreign trips —including personal trips — undertaken by his cabinet colleagues to various tax havens after UPA-2 came to power?

The article can be read at: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_why-is-government-reluctant-to-retrieve-funds-stashed-abroad_1489965

Bofors: The Original Scandal!!

The New Year could not have started with a bigger bang. Though an old one, the Bofors is still quite a potent firecracker. This one directly implicates the royal family of India. It removes any veneer that is left. It takes off the shine from the youthful face of the Rajkumar. Sins of the father, you see!!!
Problem with democracies is that things cannot be buried or wished away even when you are in power. Too many whistle blowers out side of the party and within. The Gandhi family has antagonized too many people in Congress itself. That is why someone from within empowered R R Patil to call Digvijay Singh’s lies. Now someone is trying to bring the Bofors scandal back. I don’t know who is responsible for bringing this one up but this has to put the Gandhi family on the defensive.
In terms of money, it was not the biggest scams. Congress has bettered it’s own record with the 2G scam. But the timing and the audacity with which it was dealt with were mind-boggling. That was the first time foreigners were revealed as beneficiaries of Indian money.
As I said, it is not the biggest scam. But it surely was the first one of its kind and hence is deeply embedded in Indian minds. I wish the culprits would get punished. But I know better. I am not holding my breath!

Bofors case: Ex-CBI chief adds to Cong's worries
Former CBI Director Joginder Singh on Monday compounded the Congress's problem.Singh minced no words in putting the ruling party in the dock over the CBI's role in the Bofors probe. Joginder Singh has clearly said that even the CBI probe had concluded that kickbacks were paid in the Bofors gun deal.

The article can be read at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/125453/LATEST%20HEADLINES/bofors-case-ex-cbi-chief-adds-to-congs-worries.html

The picture is from: http://news.indiainfo.com/article/091005102139_quattrocchi/465017.html

2011: Hopes And Dreams!!

I would like to wish all of our readers a very Happy New Year. I pray to the good Lord Bholenath that Indians get rewarded for their hard work in the face of lost opportunity, optimism in the face of despair, perseverance in face of fear and faith in face of demagoguery.

We walk into a new year with hopes and dreams for our families and our great nation. May the good lord give us the wisdom and the strength to do the right thing.

Here is an apt poem by Sahir Ludhianvi for your perusal.

Aao ki ko_ii Khvaab bune.n

aao ki ko_ii Khvaab bune.n kal ke vaaste
varanaa ye raat aaj ke sangiin daur kii
Das legii jaan-o-dil ko kuchh aise ki jaan-o-dil
taa-umr phir na ko_ii hasii.n Khvaab bun sake.n

[bunanaa = to weave; sangiin daur = hard/difficult times]
[Das lenaa = to bite; taa-umr = entire life]

go ham se bhaagatii rahii ye tez-gaam umr
Khvaabo.n ke aasare pe kaTii hai tamaam umr

[tez-gaam = fleet-footed]

zulfo.n ke Khvaab, ho.nTho.n ke Khvaab, aur badan ke Khvaab
meraaj-e-fan ke Khvaab, kamaal-e-suKhan ke Khvaab

[meraaj-e-fan = (to reach) summit of art; kamaal-e-suKhan = perfection in poetry]

tahaziib-e-zindagii ke, faroG-e-vatan ke Khvaab
zindaa.N ke Khvaab, kuuchaa-e-daar-o-rasan ke Khvaab

[tahaziib-e-zindagii = civilized life; faroG-e-vatan = nation's progress/upliftment]
[zindaa.N = prison; kuuchaa-e-daar-o-rasan = road leading to the gallows]

ye Khvaab hii to apanii javaanii ke paas the
ye Khvaab hii to apane amal ke asaas the
ye Khvaab mar gaye hai.n to be-rang hai hayaat
yuu.N hai ki jaise dast-e-tah-e-sang hai hayaat

[amal = work; asaas = foundation; hayaat = life]
[dast-e-tah-e-sang = hands crushed under a stone (helpless)]

aao ki ko_ii Khvaab bune.n kal ke vaaste
varanaa ye raat aaj ke sangiin daur kii
Das legii jaan-o-dil ko kuchh aise ki jaan-o-dil
taa-umr phir na ko_ii hasii.n Khvaab bun sake.n

The nazm was taken from: http://urdupoetry.com/sahir29.html

The image is from: http://www.teneues.com/shop-int/Calendars/Travel/India-2011.html

2010: The Lost Year

One year is not a significant portion of an old person’s life for example PM Manmohan Singh or a middle aged man for example Rahul Gandhi. That is simple law of percentages. However for people below the age of eighteen, one a year is a lot. Since people below eighteen are the future of the nation, a lost year is something they cannot afford. When the voters elect political leaders, they may vote on caste or regional politics or any other reason. But the one thing that all voters share is the hope that this batch of leaders will do something the other guy did not. If the only thing that politicians do is to take care of their own interests, then the time they are in the office gets wasted. Like everything else, opportunity is a limited resource in India. Any waste of that kind means lost lives. Can the voters afford anymore of these leaders? Can we afford one PM keeping the seat warm with ineffective and sycophantic subordinates so that the crown Prince in waiting is not threatened? Can the young afford to have their destiny denied while the crown prince learns the craft?
The Indian voters need to do the right thing for the sake of their children. Our batting is over. Now it’s our children’s chance to bat. If we do not give them the heaviest bat then we are the ones at fault.

India Goes Down The Drain in 2010
by Dr. Subhash Kapila
India seems to have gone down the drain in 2010 under the UPA II Government whose leadership is in the hands of the Congress Party, judging solely from the “corruption scams epidemic” that has engulfed India in the first one and a half years of the return to power of the Congress Government. India had everything going strongly in its favor in terms of economic growth and a growing recognition internationally. India’s good achievements in 2010 have been washed away by the “corruption scams epidemic” leaving one to mourn India’s going down the drain, unbecoming of a rising power. Sadly, India’s unending corruption scams seem to have dented the public image of the Prime Minister and the Congress President.
The article can be read at: http://cms.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=10334

Yeh Kahan Ka Insaaf Hai?

The people at rediff have raised a very painful point. I don't think that was intentional but shows the warped way the Indian government and the judiciary looks at issues. These two reports appeared one after another. One report has ULFA leader getting bail and the other has bail being denied to the alleged Malegaon blast accused. We have known secessionists, seditionists, terrorists and other assortment of anti Indian thugs roaming around with no fear of any repercussion. But the one solitary case where the police caught a couple of Hindus is being used to make an example of how tough Indian laws are.

Who are these people fooling really?

ULFA chief Arabinda Rajkhowa granted bail
Raising hopes for a peace process to take place between the banned United Liberation Front of Assam and the government of India , a designated court in Guwahati on Thursday granted bail to the self-styled 'chairman' of the outfit Arabinda Rajkhowa in all the six TADA cases pending against him.
The article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/ulfa-chief-arabinda-rajkhowa-granted-bail/20101230.htm

Malegaon blast case: Bail plea of Col Purohit, two other accused rejected
A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court on Thursday rejected the bail pleas of three accused including Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, arrested in the September 2008 Malegaon blast case, after accepting the prosecution's argument that if released on bail the accused would indulge in unlawful activities. Purohit and two other accused -- Rakesh Dhawde and Ajay Rahirkar -- had sought for bail stating that they have been falsely implicated and that since the chargesheet has been filed in the case, their custody was not required further.
The article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/report/malegaon-blast-case-bail-plea-of-col-purohit-two-other-accused-rejected/20101230.htm

Narendra Modi Leads. Will India Follow?

While other states in India are still dealing with the mundane and tyipcal problems, Gujarat once again shows the way under the inspiring leadership of Bhai Narendra Modi!!

Take a bow Mr. C.M., take a bow sir!

Wish all the states and the country could get a leader like you

Gujarat Solar Park to be developed as Swarnim Surya Teerth

"Chief Minister Narendra Modi today laid the foundation stone of the 500MW Gujarat Solar Park being developed by Gujarat Power Corporation at a cost of Rs.1,247-crore on 1,000-acre government wasteland at Charanka near Santalpur in Patan district in north Gujarat.He also laid the stone for Smart Grid Transmission Network, being set up by Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO), even as the Government of Gujarat has entered into agreement with solar power generation companies to buy up to 590 mw electricity from them.

Several foreign and Indian companies have decided set up solar power generation units on land given on 30 years lease, in addition to plants to manufacture solar power producing machinery, involving a total investment of Rs.7,500-crore. "
The article can be read at: http://www.narendramodi.in/news/news_detail/1044

Mayawati's Mayanagri Or Andhernagri?

This is the state of affairs in UP, which has close to 60 million people below the poverty line, run by Mayawati, the Dalit Chief Minister whose rags to riches story is known to all. After she became a crorepati from the donations she received from her admirers as per her claims, she embarked on the mammoth project of converting Lucknow into a Mayanagri to carve out a place for her in the nation’s history.
The statistics of Ambedkar memorial speaks for itself, 5.5 lakh metric tons of pink and red sandstone from Rajasthan and Mirzapur, gigantic stupas, 46 statues of Mayawati, mentor Kanshiram and many other dalit leaders, 60 huge elephants made of chunar stone. The park covers 413 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore of public money.

After her means of making money through extortion was exposed with the murder of the PWD engineer MK Gupta because he refused to contribute Rs.50 lakh for the chief minister's birthday bash, this is what she had to say; "We make no bones about observing my birthday as "arthik sahayog diwas" a day for seeking donations from our party supporters who shell out their savings with which we sustain our party,"

The incident in the following article clearly illustrates the vicious cycle the people of UP got themselves into! We have an elected Dalit establishment that openly indulging in extortion, which in turn encourages and leads to theft and corruption and then that very same establishment slaps a penalty and punishes the helpless poor who was practically guided in taking such measures.
Abject poverty (where parents sell their kids into bondage) and immorality (where there are businessmen who are willing to buy these kids) are exactly the conditions and atmosphere that helps breed naxalism and terrorism. It’s these unfortunate child laborers like Salim, Mohsin and Shoaib who grow up into frustrated youths and become ideal recruits for naxalites and radical mullahs to perpetrate terrorism in the name of social injustice and religion.
“Corruption is at its peak because contractors, bureaucrats and BSP leaders are working overtime to outdo each other in presenting Mayawati money, diamonds and jewellery,” remarked a politician.
It is time for the masses of UP to get out of this vicious cycle of caste politics and stop electing the Mayawati’s and the Mulayam’s to power.

Family pawns children for a loan
"Lucknow: Poverty has driven a family in an Uttar Pradesh village to give away their three children in bondage against a loan of R 42,000. The children have to now toil for 12 hours a day to make up for the loan taken by the family, a distraught relative said. The kids - Salim (15), Mohsin (13) and Shoaib (12) - now toil every day at their employer's workshop so that the huge loan of R 42,000 gets repaid."
The article can be read at: http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/family-pawns-children-for-a-loan-1658432.html

Engineer's murder result of 'underhand money': Maya
"She admitted her birthday on Jan 15 was traditionally observed as "arthik sahayog diwas" (financial cooperation day). "We make no bones about observing my birthday as a day for seeking donations from our party supporters who shell out their savings with which we sustain our party," she said. "Unlike other parties, including the Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), our party is not supported by big industrial and business houses. Therefore, we have to depend on small contributions made by our supporters," she said.
Mayawati, however, added: "This time I have issued directions for such funds to come only from party functionaries and not MPs and MLAs of the party." Mayawati declared that her next birthday would be celebrated as 'dhikkar diwas' (condemnation day) without the usual bash. "
The article can be read at: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Engineer-s-murder-result-of-underhand-money-Maya/Article1-360679.aspx

Sanjay Gandhi Versus Congress!

Without going into the nitty-gritty of why India faced emergency during 25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977, we can safely say that it was Mrs. Indira Gandhi who was responsible for it. Jaiprakash Narain, Raj Narain and George Fernandez were all bit players in the game of subversion of India. I am not going to go into the details but would like to say one thing – Sanjay Gandhi was no where near the scene when all this happened. However, in the party's official history released at the just-concluded plenary session. It clearly lays all the blame for all the ills of the period at the guy’s feet. One wonders why? One part of the family gets lionized while the other has been hung out to dry? Is it because Sanjay’s widow and her son belong to the BJP? I am no fan of Sanjay Gandhi. Far from it! But this act of the current day Congressmen seems a tad cruel to me. What do you think?

Cong blames Sanjay for Emergency ‘excesses’
"Sanjay Gandhi had, by then, emerged as a leader of great significance. It was due to his support to family planning that the government decided to pursue it more vigorously. He also promoted slum clearance, anti-dowry measures and promotion of literacy but in an arbitrary and authoritarian manner much to annoyance of the popular opinion," says the party's official history released at the just-concluded plenary session. "
The article can be read at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Cong-blames-Sanjay-Gandhi-for-Emergency-excesses/articleshow/7181279.cms

Narendra Modi: When He is Right, He is RIGHT!

Age and wisdom should always be respected. At least that is what most Hindus are taught at home. Let me add some thing to it. If you find something of wisdom from your enemy, you should adapt and adopt it. Of course I am talking to people who hate Bhai Narendra Modi for everything he stands for even when he is right.
He has shown how to manage the power distribution with limited production. For a heavily industrialized state like Gujarat, the need for energy is enormous. Being a state CM, he can only do so much. I have heard from small business owners in Gujarat who complain about frequent power outages in far flung areas of the state. That is not the CM’s fault. Infrastructure development is the responsibility of the Central Government. Even then, Bhai Narendra has done what most CM’s can only dream of. The solar power initiative in Gujarat is a perfect example. Even ex President Of India, APJ Abdul Kalam recently said that other states should follow the agricultural success of Gujarat. But why stop at agricultural success? If Bhai Narendra has a good suggestion like the one he makes about the solar power, then why do the other states let personal prejudices stand in the way? Isn’t that the Hindu way?

Narendra Modi flays PM over India's solar woes
"Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today flayed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for ignoring his suggestion that India should take lead in the solar energy sector.
"I had written to the Prime Minister some four or five years ago that our country should take the lead in solar power sector by launching a movement on the concept of Sun-Son, but there has been no reply from the PM so far," Modi, said while speaking at the India Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) conclave here.
"I had suggested that like some Asia Pacific countries who have formed small groups for research and development in solar energy, we should also take lead and form such groups in India to create a movement," Modi said."
The article can be read at: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Narendra-Modi-flays-PM-over-Indias-solar-woes/729880/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+expressindia%2FiKgY+%28Expressindia%29